Blog
The Joomla! Advantage
Blog
Over the past 15 years, there has been huge progress in the technologies used to build websites. In 1993, almost all websites were basic text, with HTML (HyperText Markup Language) used to insert links and occasional images. Most browsers were still text-based and bandwidth was expensive - less was better.
In 1994-5, with the advent of Netscape and increase in the build-out of Internet connectivity, colour and images were introduced to the web, opening up a whole new experience, both for viewers and for developers. Then came javascript - dynamic actions on pages, and a few hooks to use databases as a back end for content.
But the real changes occurred in the last 5-10 years with the introduction of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), XHTML (Extensible HTML), scripting languages like PHP with their included routines to access databases, and the rise of inexpensive broadband cabling to deliver everything.
The main reason for all this progess is primarily due to the fact that the web has so many people freely donating their time and expertise to development. The Open Source community that enables anyone to work on new technologies without the restrictions of corporate mandates has pioneered much of the new capabilities. And the kicker is that, for the most part, these applications, languages, databases and servers are free of charge for anyone to use.
A primary offshoot of this progress has been the development of the Web Content Management Systm (CMS) for organizing, storing and deploying content of all sorts through a standardized framework that includes templates and an easy-to-use backend administration system.
The CMS has radically reduced the requirement for program coding, resulting in the emphasis on developing and running a website changing from programming functionality to creating end-user experiences. Subsequently the time and inherent cost of website creation has been drastically reduced.
Of the many CMS' available, there are aguably only three that garner the vast majority of the marketplace, Wordpress, Drupal, and Joomla!.
Wordpress is the 'de facto' standard for blogging. It is extremely user-friendly. However, although progress on WP has enabled it to perform many more functions than as just a blog, it is still limited in its scope. In addition, the way the core has been developed, updates to the program can often cause website failures if any extensive customization has been done.
As a development platform, Drupal is more flexible than the others. As a programmer, I can say that it is easier to make changes to the way it functions than in the other systems. However, it does have some major drawbacks. First of all, customizing functionality is time and therefore cost intensive. In addition, where Drupal excels in function customization, it fails in template customization. It is difficult to make an eye-catching professional site with the tools provided. Also, the backend administration system is very jumbled and difficult to navigate, which makes it confusing and intimidating for less experienced users.
Joomla combines much of the ease of use of Wordpress with much of functionality (albeit not as flexible) of Drupal. It is relatively easy to set up and the backend administration is friendly and easy to use. In addition, there are thousands of free or inexpensive 'ready-to-use or customize' templates available. Also, there is a huge community of users who have already developed hundreds of free or inexpensive custom 'plug-and-play' modules and components that extend the standard Joomla functionality, and continue to do so. Many must be slightly modified to adapt visually to a specific template, but for the most part, the changes are fairly easy to make. It is also important to note that most of the internal features available in Drupal are being added to the Joomla core on a regular basis.
To sum up, the advantage to using Joomla! (and the reason why not all but most of our sites are built with it) is simple: it makes it faster for us to design and deploy a professional, working website that is easy to maintain, resulting in a lower cost for our clients, both for the initial site, and for ongoing maintenance/updates as well as for future additions of functionality.
Scott
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
